Infiltrating The Hit Crowd

IO Interactive studio creative director, Christian Elverdam, on the past, present and future of Agent 47.

Despite bagging a top ten spot in our 2016 Game Of The Year list, Hitman isn’t quite done. Just before Christmas we were surprised by the festive feast of a Home Alone-inspired Paris makeover (the two targets being the hapless goons from said film), and on 31 January, the same day as the game’s disc release, Hitman will receive a third Bonus Episode.

It’s called Landslide, and it sees Agent 47 returning to series high-point Sapienza to execute a corrupt politician. Just like the former two Bonus Episodes, the add-on will give its level a visual overhaul: this time around the sleepy Italian town is playing host to a concert in the piazza at sunset. Cue up all the ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ gags…

So with the sun about to set on the first season, it’s time we catch up with IO Interactive’s studio creative director, Christian Elverdam, to see how the studio behind Hitman’s reinvention feels the project has evolved so far, and discover what’s in store for Season Two of the Danish developer’s ever-growing World Of Assassination.

OPM: Looking back, how happy are you with the complete first season? 

Christian Elverdam: I’m really happy. There was a bit of skepticism about the episodic format and we made a hard bed for ourselves with the way we went back and forth in terms of what would be in the initial package. This was the first time we did our version of a Hitman sandbox in ten years, and we had no idea how that would fare for an extended period of time.